Holy Land free day still a mystery

Holy Land Experience doesn't want you to know when it schedules its required free day each year out of concern over a possible "uncontrollable situation."

At least that's the conclusion to be drawn by a letter the religion-based theme park sent to the office of Orange County Property Appraiser Bill Donegan.

Donegan asked the park for documentation of its free days after I reported earlier this month that the park gave out conflicting information about the day.

Holy Land, owned by Trinity Broadcasting Network, is required to drop its normal $35 ticket price and offer free admission one day each year in exchange for a property-tax exemption that saves it about $300,000 annually, according to a 2006 state law designed to guarantee the exemption.

John Casoria, attorney for TBN and corporate secretary of Holy Land Experience Ministries Inc., said free days took place on Nov. 12, 2007, a Monday, and Feb. 5, 2008, a Tuesday.

The date for 2009 has not been set, though Casoria said, "it is our belief that it will occur sometime in the early fall."

The only way to find out for sure is to watch the local TBN station, WTGL-TV58. Casoria touts the merits of using TBN's channel to advertise the day, which is supposed to act as the park's public service to the community because it is considered a church and not a business for tax purposes.

"TBN rarely, if ever, utilizes flyers or newspaper ads to conduct public advertising simply because of the expense and limited outreach of print media," Casoria wrote in the letter. "On the other hand, WTGL-TV58 literally covers 100 percent of the greater Orlando area ... thus reaching more of the local community and increasing the potential for the local population to become aware of the free admission day."

But he goes on to say that Holy Land is limited to a capacity of 1,700 and counters his earlier point by suggesting that further advertising could overwhelm the park.

"It simply does not have the parking, traffic control, comfort facilities and food service capabilities of other venues," he said. "We trust that the city of Orlando does not want an uncontrollable situation to occur at the park on this day."

What exactly would that be? People waiting in line? That would seem like a good problem to have for a theme park interested in raising its profile.

Regardless, the situation goes to show the hazards of hastily written legislation. When former Rep. Fred Brummer, now an Orange County commissioner, and former Sen. Daniel Webster sponsored the bill to guarantee the park a tax exemption, I have to think they intended for the reach to be broader than that.

Otherwise, this legislation smacks of the exact kind of catering to special interests that keeps property off the tax rolls while taxpayers get nothing in return.

Where's Orlando?According to a recent poll of 3,400 people by TripAdvisor, Miami is the nation's sexiest city while Portland, Ore., is the most underrated and Seattle is the healthiest.

Travelers listed their favorite cities as New York, San Francisco and Chicago (in that order) and named Washington, D.C., as having the best free attractions.

Orlando was honored with ... nothing? That's right. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Not a mention for the theme park capital of the world. Rival Las Vegas was deemed most economical, but it was also crowned most overrated.

At least we're not Cleveland, which outranked the competition in the category of most boring.